It's Here!

[Auburntsts]

Folks,
My tail kit arrived today! Inventory is complete (except for the hardware) and everything is here with no back orders. I was surprised at the amount of duct tape holding the skins in-check. Good thnig I had already decided to strip the all the blue plastic off as I bulid (vs. the soldering iron route) as good portions of the blue came off with the tape.

I also had a number of ribs (at least 7 by memory) that had no plastic on them at all, had fluted flanges, and were pretty well scratched up (as if someone had taken a Scotchbrite pad to them already). However, the holes were the same size as my plastic encased ribs and they otherwise looked OK--just cosmetically ugly compared to the shiny ribs. Is that normal to have parts in that condition? I'm planning to prime my interior, but if I wasn't, I would have had to prime these ribs. Anyone else received parts like this?

Anyway, looking forward to pounding rivets!

Todd
40631

[markerthebarker]

I believe your talking about your HS-905 nose rib, mine were the same way. Welcome to the club

[Rick S.]

I asked the same thing when I saw mine. I was told that those ribs were hydroformed and the plastic needed to removed due to the higher pressures needed for the thicker material. Note those ribs seem "beefier" than others.

[johngoodman]

Originally Posted by markerthebarker

I believe your talking about your HS-905 nose rib, mine were the same way. Welcome to the club

Yep, so were mine. I sort of figured that it was normal.
John

[Auburntsts]

Thanks for the inputs guys. Truth be told, I was more more surprised by all the duct tape and the pain to get it peeled off the skins than the "naked" ribs. In any event, I didn't lose sleep over it so all's well.

Todd

[egohr1]

For those that are tracking Kit numbers etc. I recieved a slow build fuse kit yesterday, cabin top number is 374.

Eric Gohr

[Roadster]

Originally Posted by Auburntsts

Folks,
I also had a number of ribs (at least 7 by memory) that had no plastic on them at all, had fluted flanges, and were pretty well scratched up (as if someone had taken a Scotchbrite pad to them already). However, the holes were the same size as my plastic encased ribs and they otherwise looked OK--just cosmetically ugly compared to the shiny ribs. Is that normal to have parts in that condition? I'm planning to prime my interior, but if I wasn't, I would have had to prime these ribs. Anyone else received parts like this?

Yes, my builder number is 40619, and some of my horizontal stabilizer ribs were the exact same (i.e., no blue vinyl, scratches on the surface, and tooling marks around the holes in the web). Even if you asked Van's to replace them, you'd get new parts that look the exact same, because of the manufacturing process for those particular parts, as Rick indicated.

I, too, was surprised by the amount of duct tape holding the skins in place, but I was able to avoid too much peeling of the blue vinyl and limit it to mostly riveted edges, which I am removing with my soldering iron anyway.

Just finished my V-stab a few days ago...